A.C.A Approved Electrician Test

[Dannyg83]

Could anyone give me some info onthe A.C.A test for becoming an approved electrician as i have got mine in about 6 weeks and dont know what to expect ? Not sure if this just applies to sparks in Scotland

Cheers

 

[gamblor6]

i made him show me where it says this is the way to do it. its in the memorandum of guidence blah blah cant remember off hand how that one ends.

 

[IQ Electrical]

i made him show me where it says this is the way to do it. its in the memorandum of guidence blah blah cant remember off hand how that one ends.

It's saving thousands of lives a year, they were dropping like flies before GS38 leads, arc masks and plastic barriers!

 

[gpz900jim]

so what was he actually asking for ? I cant see it.

 

[gamblor6]

he said to me, " before you test for ze, remember im here, wot u gonna do?" i said erm erm" he said "the time is 1055 no answer by 11 we move on and i black mark you" i humed and hawed tryed all things like ask permission "no im next to you" he said. long five mins ill tell you. at the end of all the tests he showed me the clear plastic sheet which was folded up, hidden underneath the trolly with all the stuff on it. i had a sore head that night lol.

 

[gamblor6]

It's saving thousands of lives a year, they were dropping like flies before GS38 leads, arc masks and plastic barriers!

the real reason they fail you on such an obscure thing is first timers get it free. the price list for the resits is kinda pricey. they gotta get money out you somehow.

 

[richieboy1972]

Evening fellow sparks,

I am sitting the ACA test this Monday and was looking for any other wee pointers if possible???
It's 21:30 on a friday night and i know i should be having a couple of beers instead i'm sitting here
with a pile of 17th Edition books wondering where to start??(Essential bedtime reading)

Any further info on the Inspection & Testing part, i.e do you have to carry out the full sequence of tests???

And any info on the underpinning knowledge assessment would help...

Thanks in advance.

 

[gamblor6]

ive sat an failed it richie

 

[gamblor6]

its a hard day. be aware, you have to basically do a full test while some "guy" watches you. a sound understanding of testing is needed.

 

[gamblor6]

he wont let you do live tests, if for the ze test you dont get the plastic barrier/sheet out from underneath the trolley to use as a barrier, there is flat bar hooks on the wall for it. they hide it the b,s thats the biggest help you.ll need believe me!!

 

[richieboy1972]

Many thanks for your quick response, just trying to work out the most useful things
to look at over the next 48 hours as there seems to be very little info on the test itself...


Do you only resit the parts you fail???



Rgds,

 

[Smudge]

yes, you only re-sit the parts you fail. All writen parts, and underpinning knowledge are fairly simple. For example, supervision, an apprentice turns up drunk, what do you do? a) Let him work b) keep an eye on him c) send him home. Common sense and SAFETY always denotes the right answer.

The testing part (i failed, so will try my best to help?!?). Starts with insulation resistance, precautions etc, carry out test. Then i was asked for continuity of final ring, conductors are labelled which helps. Expected results. Then Polarity.
This is where i failed, the dreaded Ze!! What precautions should you take?? USE AN INSULATING BARRIER BETWEEN YOURSELF AND THE LIVE PARTS - PLASTIC MATTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did not, and failed. Not a good feeling. Make sure you know off hand all the expected results for each test as the values ARE asked for. Hope this helps, and good luck! Let us know how you get on, hopefully you'll be able to help me come my resit!

 

[garry]

How's it going guys...I have mines on Tuesday and I'm in the same boat lol,just not sure what to look up.when you guys done the insulation restistance test did you test the whole board as one or each circuit individualy.also did you just remove the starters from the fitting instead of disconnecting them.Thanks in advance for any info.

 

[g1url]

Hi ,sat mine a few weeks ago and failed on underpinning knowledge ?. you only have to resit the part you fail. but you pay for it, and take a day off work ,and drive /get there.and pay them to mark it and on and on, purely a money making scheme like nic eic and select. sell sell sell.you do one course, they tell you you need another, do another then you need to up date the first , do another because you have been out of college for 3 years, then they update the regs so you can pay another visit to them again to do all the courses again.

The testing part , i had never heard of this barrier sheet before. so i looked up this forum. what it is ,is a sheet of plastic about 1.2 meters wide by 3.5 meters long ,quite thick. you have to clamp it up around the full booth about shoulder height to cover all the trunking,cable tray etc that you might touch when testing the incoming ze. you have to disconnect the earth from the earth terminal to test the incoming ze and the fuse board is live so there is a danger of the trunking etc becoming live and not blowing the breaker /fuse because there is no earth path to allow it to trip..fair enough. i done a select course to upgrade to 17th ed and never heard anything about it. or when i was in college. anyhow before you test make sure it is fixed all around , the main big fuse board will have its cover off to test so disconnect your earth with power off. then clamp it round just below where your earth cable is sitting to give maximum coverage of metal parts etc. make sure you have acces to live and neutral for your tester. earth on first, then neutral then live.
I bet you 999 out of 1000 sparks wouldnt have heard of this or carry one in their van . but if its making things safer fair enough.

safe isolation... make sure you lock off everthing and POST/STICK on the wee notice with magnetic backs to say 'power is isolated do not switch on'
i was nervous as hell so forgot to stick on notice on first on ,but the guy was ok.
i had to safely isolate the motors . they all controll ewach other,ie one switches on then a few seconds later the next then a bit later the next one . MAKE SURE YOU ISOLATE THE CONTROL CIRCUIT as well as the motor because it will still work with its isolator off ?.all marked up well at dbs.

fault finding was straight forward ,just bell it out with super loud buzzers.all wiring faults like, no neutral .reversed polarity no live , not a ring, there is no tricks etc.

written tests , hate them.
dont think i could have done any better than i did and it was open book so dont see how i will pass the resit.

any other questions just ask .
good luck .

 

[dodds3218]

hey g1url. when you isolated the motor circuit did you have to lock off two breakers? also where did you test to confirm dead? got mine tues an having a nightmare!!! my testing ok but not great. not lookin forward to what the boy gonna hit me with. wish id never booked it ha ha

 

[g1url]

yeah you should but i just isolated the switch above the motor at the local isolator and tested at the start stop contactor enclosure. i should have also isolated the motor control circuit for the start stop and proven it. nerves . but now you know so you will be ok there. the underpinning knoledge is full on. lots of questions but they tell you what book to go to and roughly where it is for most of them,its just the time seems to fly.you need to answer a certain amount from each book correct to pass so dont leave out whole sections ,make sure you scan through the qustions and spend a bit of time on each bit. i just wrote down the numbers of the ones i couldnt find first time around and went back to them at the end, i could have down with more time but i kept wasting time on a couple of qustions that i coulnt find answers to in the regs etc. one was on voltage drop.
WHAT IS THE MAXIMUM PERMISSABLE VOLTAGE DROP ON A 230VOLT LIGHTING CIRCUIT ?.
i found the answer in the regs but it didnt match any of the 4 multiple choice questions so i worked it out again , didnt match so kept dicking about with calculator tryin to get it to match (dont know if i got it right in the end )

WHAT IS THE RIGHT ANSWER BY THE WAY?.

another one was about overheaded catenary wires minimum height over a road to be used by vehicles, i knew i had seen it in regs but couldnt find it and spent loads of time looking.

good luck

ask any other questions no matter how stupid/simple they might seem and i will try to help.